The Manchinian Candidate

[TheDrake]

Joe's at it again. Going for more watering down of Democratic infrastructure bill. Or perhaps it's outright destruction. Is he setting the stage for an affiliation change? Just voting his conscience? Maybe he's being blackmailed? Is there an endgame with one year left with him holding this unusual power position? Is he risking his donors? He holds office until 2025.

Why hasn't the global communist cabal run by the murderous Clintons arranged an accident?

[TheDeamon]

Joe's at it again. Going for more watering down of Democratic infrastructure bill. Or perhaps it's outright destruction. Is he setting the stage for an affiliation change? Just voting his conscience? Maybe he's being blackmailed? Is there an endgame with one year left with him holding this unusual power position? Is he risking his donors? He holds office until 2025.

Why hasn't the global communist cabal run by the murderous Clintons arranged an accident?

January 21, 2023. Can't have Kamala having less than a full 4 year term count against the 2 term limit.

...not that she's likely to be electable in any context.

[TheDeamon]

Although I guess on further thought, we could see some reshuffling scenarios at the end of next year during the Congressional Lame Duck term, if the Democrats have things mostly setup and ready to go.

Something like:
On November 15, 2022 Kamala Harris resigns as VPotUS.
On November 18th Biden nominates a replacement for VP. (Could be a Clinton)
VP replacement nomination gets ratified by the House.. Although the Senate gets tricky(VP can no longer break a tie, as there is no VP; 25th Amendment simply requires a majority vote from both houses so 50% + 1).
Then in the first week of January Republicans likely take control of both Houses of Congress. On the 21st of January of 2023 Joe Biden resigns and the "dark horse VP" becomes PotUS not much unlike how Gerald Ford did, only without the criminal prosecutions underway.

Of course, in that scenario, nothing to stop them going full on musical chairs meets clown car. Have Biden resign, VP Harris becomes PotUS, "dark horse" gets nominated as VP to fill the vacancy in that office due to her promotion. Then on January 21st of 2023, Harris resigns and their dark horse takes the reigns.

There is the additional note that just because it is legal for them to do this, doesn't mean they'd actually do so. I imagine a lot of people would "loose their minds" over such a stunt being pulled. (January 6th of 2021 demonstrated many didn't have much of one to start with)

I'd have doubts about the ability anyone put into office by such a political contrivance being able to win a re-election bid.

[Ephrem Moseley]

I'm the one in charge here.

I'm the one that ALL Christians listen to, that's why.

My Dad is running things day-to-day. I'm good at delegation. He's not doing an awful job. I reamed him for that "our water is toxic!" story in USA today. That won't happen again.

[Ephrem Moseley]

You see how I'm nailing my family to the wall on Facebook.

Do you see how I talk with David Lord McLeod?

That's how I'm Ender. No prisoners. I'm just right and crossing me leads to Very Bad Places 100% of the time. I have a PERFECT record.

[msquared]

TheDeamon

You know Drake is talking about Joe Manchin and not Joe Biden?

[cherrypoptart]

Maybe Joe (Manchin) is an Obama type of Democrat, you know, the guy who said, "We're just taking out a credit card from the Bank of China, essentially. We're borrowing that money. And we've added $4 trillion worth of debt since George Bush took office. Keep in mind, just to give you some perspective, the first 42 presidents amassed $5 trillion worth of debt." - Senator Barack Obama in Columbus, OH on June 13th, 2008.

The national debt on September 30, 2008 was $10,024,724,896,912.49 so when Obama said that it was something even less.

I'm pretty sure that's the same guy who also said, “Driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars to $9 trillion is irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

The national debt now is over $28 trillion and you can look at it going up more than a million dollars a minute on a debt meter. So what I don't get is how for Democrats except for Manchin and maybe one other, the national debt is less of a problem now that it's almost tripled than it was when Obama fretted about it?

Manchin is one of the few Democrats who are making any sense. With the rest of them, it's hard to tell if they are trying to destroy the country on purpose or if they really are this clueless about how things work and it's even harder to know which of those options is actually more dangerous to America. History books will write about Manchin with glowing praise, lauding him for holding the line on the debt that threatened to crush America the same way Charles "The Hammer" Martel is exalted by history for holding the line against the Muslims who would have crushed Europe and Christendom.

Of course, that analogy doesn't bode well for us since the Muslims eventually did get into Europe en masse, primarily by destroying their own countries so they'd have a good excuse to flee them and claim asylum. Democrats will similarly destroy their own country with crime and covid, open borders and high inflation so they can have their excuse to jack up the national debt to unsustainable levels in response to the problems they themselves caused.

[TheDrake]

It is irresponsible to drive up debt. That's why every serious progressive democrat is adamant about raising taxes.

It is even more irresponsible to watch the country crumble because we're not willing to borrow.

[TheDrake]

OH, and by the way, there's nothing scary about China owning 5% of US treasuries. They are the largest country on the planet. We owe a similar amount to Japan. Neither have enough US debt to either manipulate the market or weaponize it or to leave us high and dry by refusing to buy any more.

[TheDeamon]

Maybe Joe (Manchin) is an Obama type of Democrat, you know, the guy who said, "We're just taking out a credit card from the Bank of China, essentially. We're borrowing that money. And we've added $4 trillion worth of debt since George Bush took office. Keep in mind, just to give you some perspective, the first 42 presidents amassed $5 trillion worth of debt." - Senator Barack Obama in Columbus, OH on June 13th, 2008.

Manchin is a Democratic Senator in a state that voted heavily in favor of Donald Trump in 2020. That should explain enough about his likely political considerations. All politics are (ultimately) local, and even if he has a (D) next to his name in the news, that doesn't change the fact the voters he is answerable to are predominately Republican.

[TheDrake]

So why not just be a Republican? What's the point of being a Democrat? He's picking up steam with Republican donors. A lot, which is why I call him the Manchinian Candidate as he gets levered around to opposition from within. The vast majority of donors, BTW, not from his own constituency. He's representing the interests of Texas billionaires more than his own state. He could have claimed he fought the good fight with voters when he whittled the 3.5T to 2.2T, and along with Sinema removed the tax components to pay for it all responsibly.

[cherrypoptart]

If the Democrats got all of the tax increases that they have ever dreamed of having, I doubt there's anyone in the world who seriously believes the result would be the national debt getting reduced by even a penny. Any money gained, assuming any is gained, would be spent down to the last dollar and the some. Manchin sees this quite clearly. All Republicans have been aware of this for decades. It is known.

[DJQuag]

If the Democrats got all of the tax increases that they have ever dreamed of having, I doubt there's anyone in the world who seriously believes the result would be the national debt getting reduced by even a penny. Any money gained, assuming any is gained, would be spent down to the last dollar and the some. Manchin sees this quite clearly. All Republicans have been aware of this for decades. It is known.

Come on. You know better.

There absolutely *is* a way to give the people in a country things like education, healthcare, childcare. Literally parts of your federal government are trying as best they can to restrict the ability of women to have have kids.

There *is* a way to pull this all off and I'm kind of sick about hearing how "their population is smaller."

It's the United States of America. The Magilla Gorilla of anyone who wants to show their face. Take a look at how much land is technically in the Fed's control.

[TheDrake]

So, your admitting that we will always run a deficit, regardless of how much we tax. If that's true, it also means that no matter how much we cut taxes, we will also be raising the debt. And that if spending cuts happen, we will just find other traders to cut? Pretty fatalistic. And also proven untrue by our own history from 98 through 01, as well as foreign examples that spend and tax much more than we do.

[Ephrem Moseley]

you...you guys never heard of...wait, what was it?

Weimar Germany, I think?

Zimbabwe?

Question of degree, of course. The dollar is the strongest currency in the world, by far, because it's tied to oil prices.

What goes up...

[alai]

The dollar is the strongest currency in the world, by far, because it's tied to oil prices.

More precisely, oil prices are denominated in US dollars.  Not quite the same thing.  Not quite the same thing, and not the main source of "strength" of the dollar.  Though what you're really referring to is rather, the capacity of the US to borrow, and to do so at rates of interest that make doing so practicable.